Glad you finally got to register. Sorry for the software problems. I'm still working on lots of bugs.

Anyhow, great to see your videos. It brings back fond memories of your jamming and performing at Chateau Sonore.

I split this off to a new topic just for the Octopus.

BTW, this is an amazingly cool sequencer. It looks a bit like the Noteron, but it's completely different. It's very powerful as can be seen from the videos that Dieter has made._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

Dieter, I know you aren't a member of the Genoqs company, but if you and some of the other Octopus users feel it would be valuable, I'll be glad to set up a special Octopus sub-forum. You guys could share patches (if that's the word), share ideas, answer new or perspective users' questions, etc. As you can see, we have quite a few sub-forums similar to this._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. - W. Shakespeare

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. - W. Shakespeare

Well.. I don´t want it. Like.. I´m not sure what I would need it for. No doubt that it must be great and all that though._________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Yes €2.400 is a lot but a good hardware synth is near the same. With the Octopus you can control/drive your studio (and in live situation) much more flexible than with a computer mouse ever. And the handling and interface of this machine is fantasic. The functionality is ahaed of all hardware sequencer
(Zeit, Schrittmacher, P3, Notron, MAQ 16 ,...).

Well.. I don´t want it. Like.. I´m not sure what I would need it for. No doubt that it must be great and all that though.

But it's one of those things like tabletop Space Invaders- a great conversation piece- and you can't fault that it looks great in the dark

The problem with the youtube vids is that Dieter (I'm presuming that's Dieter?) makes programming look like child's play, but later on there is another really tedious video of some dude just pressing (what looks like) thousands of combinations of buttons only to end up with a really bog-standard rave-like sound. There are parallels here to be drawn with software- where the actual programmers of these machines will excel with them, but people who just want a quick return will struggle, then look elsewhere.

As a tool for dance music (and repetitive Tadream sort of stuff) , I think the Octopus is a real winner, but for more organic linear sounding things it's not really made for that I think? But to be honest, since I've bought a computer, I've made far less music than I did when I had made-for-purpose equipment (and no computer!)._________________ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

I should add Stein that I am a moderate fan of 'dance music' btw, having been involved with the Acid House and Ambient House 'scene' since it began and worked with, and 'hanged out' with some very cool people in those circles over the last 20 years or so. But my roots aren't necessarily there and only there- like a lot of others.

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. - W. Shakespeare

Clearly the Octopus is good, but since I really don´t know how it works and what makes it special I simply don´t feel the must have urge._________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

When or what to buy is always personal ans situation bound. Money is also an argument, for sure...

Anyway, to what kind of musician is the Octopus developed to?
First of all somebody who needs a StepSequencer.
Secondly somebody who wants to change the patterns on the fly
Third somebody who likes to show of, like being on stage.

At Chateau Sonore the Octopus was prominent in the picture (I believe there were three of them?) I also believe most musicians overthere were not the musician described above.

Although, somebody like Andreas could handle such a machine on stage: he has the body language, which together with a Octopus will make a perfect performance. Ten time better then a lap-top...

But I must point out that when I saw TD on their 'white eagle' tour (1981? ) there was this box of leds that everyone who saw the gig commented on. The Octopus is very very similar- but I doubt if anyone would really get anything out of showing it off live because it's at the wrong angle. I suppose you could put it upright (which would look really stupid imo). The visual feedback is second to none- like looking at Logic- but more physical.

It's a great looking machine. And again, I second the notion that I still would love one- or at least have a go, but for the price I could get a brand new Nord G2, and I know what would come first! _________________ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

Dieter is not a developer. He's an owner. He explained the interface in detail to many of us. I couldn't explain it, but I can see that it is very logical and consistent and it would be a lot easier to learn than it first seems.

Dieter showed that is is suitable as a controller for ambient music, not just beat oriented stuff. It's quite flexible. It can do poly rhythms as well, but I think that if you were really into that, you'd want two or more.

One of my main gripes about sequencer music is that people tend to start em up and just let them run. While you could do that with the Octopus, all those buttons and multi-colored LEDs beckon you to touch and interact. I noticed that Dieter was always interacting with the sequences - very hands on - always tending to change and evolve music.

This is a step-sequencer, not a complete general musical interface. I don't think Dieter or Andreas (the co-developer) ever insinuated that this was a replacement for anything else, like a piano keyboard.

Andreas explained that this project was virtually an obsession to make what he considered to be the ideal step sequencer. To conceive, design, and manufacture such a beautiful and complex device is a significant accomplishment. It is built with much the same passion and enthusiasm as any electro-music DIY project.

Hi,
Yes the Octopus is a musical instrument with can be used as a central control system for music production playing hard- & software synthies with 9 pages with each 10 x 16 Step Tracks. In total 90 Tracks at the same time or in a structure like a song structure (Intro,.....,Bridge, Theme, ...., Outro). In this case you can use it as a master or slave device. But nevertheless you can play in parallel synthi or Piano Tracks on your Keyboards. All in midi sync or unsynced. The Page Matrix has 16 of this 9 parallel pages. This is much more than you need for a whole night performance ever. In the Tracks and pages you can set a mass of modulations and you can use your midi CC´s. Real time recording is easy possible. If you play rhythm sequences or long evolving pad´s 64 steps long, its up to the user.

On the other side you can use it only to control some Sythies/drum machines via 32 Midi chanels a one part of a complexer music setup with keyboard, Computers and Guitar. There is no restrictions in flexibilities.

You must know if you need such a device. I have long experience with Computers and mouse music and with Abelton Live. I got the feeling being a sample CD slave (with always good results after bouncing). It is too easy and I lost my motivation. With the Octopus as the master and Hardware and a Computer as a slave now it this more creative to develop music. No other hardware sequencer on the market has such a hap tic and touchable interface and that is what I was looking for.

I´m only a simple user and I am not the developer of the Octopus (this is Gabriel Seher and Marcel Achim) but in this case I like to tell people about this device which convinced me from the beginning.

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